


All Bleeding Eventually Stops

by captain_bucky_writesaswell



Category: La Reina del Sur (TV), Queen of the South (TV)
Genre: Angst, Break down, F/M, Flashbacks, Gen, Grief, Major Character Injury, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-06-30 19:06:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15757866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captain_bucky_writesaswell/pseuds/captain_bucky_writesaswell
Summary: Pote kneels back down next to James who is resting up on his elbows, “ What happened? “ - he whispers to him, a concerned look across his face.“ I don’t know ” James says so quietly that he’s not even sure if he even said it, shaking his head gently. He turns his head to Pote and repeats with watery eyes, “ I don’t know ”.(set somewhere after 307)





	1. Hoping Someday I'll Breathe Again

**Author's Note:**

> Archive warning is because there is a form of I guess domestic violence below, so I just thought I should warn you, its not too graphic at all but it gets a little intense.

It had been 2 weeks since Guero had died and they’d buried him on a field by the side of an old dirt road. James hadn’t really spoken to Teresa, she’d been doing her best efforts to actively avoid him for anything other than business. Even then, she still didn’t really want to see him.

 

It was around 9pm. A faint whisper of wind brushed against the windows of the house, the drop in temperature beginning to make the condo shriek.

He knew she was in the living room, and he doesn’t know why he went down to her. It could only end badly for him. But still he went anyway.

As he walks through the doorway he sees her standing like a ghost, almost in the middle of the room, positioned between a couple of sofas and a coffee table. He stands and just looks at her for a few seconds. Her back is facing him and so he’s careful with his next moves towards her.

She hears his faint footsteps before she looks up to see his reflection in the tall glass window opposite her. It was dark outside, and the room was well lit so she could see him quite clearly in the reflection.

“You alright?” he asks in that low, soft tone that she loves so much. She doesn’t say anything but just stares back down at her fingers. She’d been picking away at the corners of her thumb nails with her index fingers for the last couple of days.

He’s made his way around, standing a couple of yards in front of her, but the gap between them still feels too far. He figures that two weeks is long enough, he needs to break this silence between them. So he moves forwards to her and gently pulls her into his arms, resting his chin atop of her head. He thinks that this is what she needs, _this_ is the comfort that she needs.

Teresa had the same thought, but only for a moment.

No, it _was_ too soon. She didn’t feel like she was being comforted at all. She felt the exact opposite.

 

Panic; fight or flight.

 

She unexpectedly raises her hands as fists and bangs them against his chest - “NO!” she shouts at him into his chest. He gasps a little and looks down at her, wide-eyed confused.

No? What did she mean, _no_?She’s never elicited this kind of behaviour towards him. With neither of them knowing what was going on, James comes out of the attempted embrace and instead places his hands on her shoulders, “Teresa, what’s wro-“

“NO!” she bangs her fists on his chest again, knocking him back slightly. She’s almost hurting him but he doesn’t show it.

“Teresa, its okay” - he tries to reassure her. He’s so much taller than her. In that moment she feels absolutely tiny.

Before she knows why or how, she’s overcome with emotion-

“I JUST- I NEED TO BREATHE AND YOU’RE NOT LETTING ME DO THAT!” she screams at his face.

But its her next words that he’s taken back by, and his face shows it.

“GOD ITS LIKE YOU’RE STRANGLING ME!” she cries out, wide eyed with a sort of rage mixed with grief and hurt. She’s shaking, breathing heavily through her mouth.

Her words are like a dagger to his heart. A tear forms in the corner of his eyes and his forehead scrunches down. His hands are no longer on her but hovering by the sides of her arms. He can tell that she’s about to explode as he tries to dip himself down to her level.

She’s breathing unsteadily and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, she launches forwardpushing at him, letting out an aggressive grunt-like scream.

Her tiny body somehow knocking him backwards over the low glass coffee table onto the floor. She falls with him as he lands on his back, hitting his head on the rug which was thankfully covering the solid wooden floor.

All of the emotion she’s been holding back because of Mexico and Guero’s death, she releases and directs it **all** at James. As if he hadn’t taken enough of her grief already.

She’s on top of him, pounding her fists into his upper body. She’s sobbing and letting out words which neither of them can quite make out. She’s a mess, attacking James on the floor.

He’s moving his arms to try and steady her but she’s moving too quickly, hitting him over and over again. He says her name repeatedly like theres a chance it might help.

Some of her throws narrowly miss his face and he feels like a child again, like when his mother used to beat him.

Theres nothing he can do, if he fights back then he will surely hurt her, and thats the last thing he would ever want to do… _ever_.

So he just gives in and lays there, accepting her force. Grunting and wincing in pain as she’s releasing her grief out on him. After about 15 seconds, he thinks that she’s had enough, and he goes to grab a hold of her wrists. 

He stops her, but now she’s staring straight into his eyes, their faces only inches apart. Both of them in different forms of pain and gasping for breath. There’s tears coming from teresa’s eyes, falling on both her shirt and his too. Her eyes dart around his face, to her red hands and his chest and back around again, over and over.

“ No… no. no, no, no, no, NO! ” she repeats, getting progressively louder as she breaks down further, eventually giving in and falling down onto his already aching chest. He lets out a quick puff of air from his mouth as she lands on him. 

This is the point where Pote runs into the living room, gun in hand, closely followed by Kelly Anne. All they see is James and Teresa on the floor, there’s glass everywhere from the table which James fell back onto. James has his right hand hovering over the back of Teresa’s head when he notices the pair in the doorway. Pote goes to move towards them but James holds up his left hand to stop him. James and Pote gave a silent look to each other which simply translates almost to an inaudible sigh and “just…wait”.

Pote quietly places his gun back into its holster, him and Kelly Anne both shocked at what they’re seeing before them. Kelly Anne stands with her palms together covering over her mouth. They knew Teresa was still upset about Guero, but they didn’t know that she could do this to anyone…let alone, _James_.

Teresa has virtually no energy left, she’s just lying, sobbing in a heap on top of James, not in the least way similar to how they were the last time they were this close. Teresa’s hair is everywhere and James can’t even see her face. He carefully looks side to side to see where the best place to try and sit up would be, preferably the side with the least glass. He gives Pote a look which signals him to move forward.

Pote lifts Teresa off of James and manages to place her onto the sofa not too far away. James let out a held breath as Pote lifted Teresa’s small weight off of him. Kelly Anne hesitantly walks over to her to see if she’s alright, she’d almost fought herself unconscious. She grabs the blanket from off of the back of the sofa and drapes it over Teresa, brushing her hair away from her face and kneeling beside her.

Pote kneels back down next to James who is resting up on his elbows, “ What happened? “ - he whispers to him, a concerned look across his face.

James is breathing through his pain and looking over to Teresa, who now looks so peaceful compared to how she just was. Pote had also placed a supportive hand on James’ shoulder, something which he had never done before. This was the most emotional Pote had ever seen James, and so he thought his comforting hand would be justified. The pair had been growing closer as friends since Pote and Teresa’s move to Phoenix.

“ I don’t know ” James says so quietly that he’s not even sure if he even said it, shaking his head gently. He turns his head to Pote and repeats with watery eyes, “ I don’t know ”. Pote lets out a deep sigh as they both turn to Teresa, asleep on the couch.


	2. Is It Too Late To Apologise?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "For ten minutes it was just sitting there folded in half on the floor. After ten minutes Teresa couldn’t resist any longer and got up from the comfort of her bed to pick it up. She was surprised to see that it was actually handwritten from James."

For the last 4 days she’d kept herself locked in her room. Kelly Anne was the only one she allowed in to bring her food and give her updates about the winery. She’d turned her phone off so nobody could contact her.

When James was at home he’d walk to her door, not to say or do anything, but just to listen, listen to hear if she was crying. He had heard her sobbing a few of times in the first couple of days, but not recently. Kelly Anne had told him that Teresa had asked how he was, if she hurt him. She wasn’t sure what to reply to Teresa so she just said that he was fine.He was _not_ fine. She actually hurt him more than they both thought.

 

James had spent a couple of hours with Pote after they’d gotten Teresa back to her room. Pote had brought rubbing alcohol, cotton cloths, and most importantly, _drinking_ alcohol, to James’s room shortly after the incident to help him clean up his wounds. The pain of his bruised chest made it harder for him to reach around to his side, and there were a couple of glass chips in his back which he had to ask Pote for help with. He was ashamed to ask, but Pote insisted on helping him. There was no point in James making his injuries any worse whilst trying to clean them up. They both had a pair of pointy tweezers and were cautiously extracting all the pieces of glass that they could get, James wincing at the removal of the larger pieces. 

“What the hell went on downstairs?” Pote asked as he began to bundle up and throw away all the glass he had just pulled out of James.

“I just wanted to see if she was okay. We haven’t talked at all since...you know...Guero.” James says, raising his eyebrows and rolling his eyes a little at the mention of _his_ name, before he looks down into the drops of blood forming circles in his sink. He turned the tap on to wash them away and wiped his hand around the bowl to make them disappear faster. James has never minded the sight of his own blood, but there was something about it this time that made him almost want to be sick.

Pote had gone into James’ room and pulled a clean shirt off of James’ bed, handing it to him as he came back into the bathroom. He then retreated to rest in bathroom doorway, a comfortable enough distance away from James.

“She just wasn’t ready for me to be near to her again, and I probably-" he pauses and takes a deep breath before continuing "I probably overstepped my boundaries anyway.” James admitted. But what even were his boundaries? They had spent the night together but he now has no idea where he stands with her.

Pote tilts his head at James, eyes narrowing a little as he realises what he’s saying.

James had pulled on the clean shirt but is still stood over the sink with his hands pressed flat onto the marble either side of the bowl, biting down on his bottom lip. He was angry with himself for being so foolish.

“You don’t get it do you?” Pote croaks from the safety doorway. He’s never been afraid to question James.

James lifts his head and glares at Pote in the mirror in front of him.

“What do you mean?” James shakes his head and does a little gesture with his hands.

“Think about it James, her ex-lover just dies in her arms, and who’s the one burying him? Who’s the one trying to comfort her for her loss?”

He pauses for a second before continuing,

“- her lover _now ._ ” 

James’ eyes widen and he lifts his head a little higher, about to speak just as Pote cuts him off- “Don’t bother with a bull-crap excuse James, _I know ” ... k_ now... but how could he know? How long has he known?

James doesn’t fight back, instead just blinks, sighs deeply and lowers his head back down to look into the sink, the blood now virtually washed away.

“You need to understand this from her perspective” are the final words of wisdom that Pote gives to James, before asking “I’m gonna go get a sandwich, you want anything?” to which James replies solemnly “no I’m good, thanks.”Pote leaves James to think about what he had said.

Pote was right. Teresa had just lost her first love and it probably wasn’t the best idea for James (who is wholeheartedly and completely in love with her) to be trying to remain close to her right now.

 

James has never been one to flap around with flamboyant long speeches of affection, this Teresa knew. On day two of her locking herself away, at around 6pm, James came to her door. He slipped a note underneath the wood and hoped that she would get up to read it.

Teresa was just walking back to her bed from the bathroom when she noticed the note. She was reluctant at first to pick it up, she assumed it would be from Kelly Anne. For ten minutes it was just sitting there folded in half on the floor. After ten minutes Teresa couldn’t resist any longer and got up from the comfort of her bed to pick it up. She was surprised to see that it was actually handwritten from James, his wonky scrawl simply saying:

> _“I’m sorry”_

He even put a small, very faint ‘x’ at the end, which could almost have been mistaken for a full stop. He wanted to write more but he thought that he should just start with this, baby steps James, baby steps if you want to get back to how you two were before Mexico.

Teresa had felt so sickened by her actions, this was the main reason why she’d squirrelled herself away. She knew that he’d be coming back to her door before he went to bed, and remembered that she had found an old notepad in the bottom of a bag in her closet when they first arrived to the house, and that she had been keeping it on top of her chest of draws. Once she’d scrambled to find a pen in her purse, she began to tear a page from the notebook, and then began to write.

When James came back up to go to bed, he noticed that Teresa had slipped a note of her own back under her door into the hall.

> _“I should be apologising, not you._
> 
> _Are you okay?”_

He gave a small smile at the fact that they were now communicating the old fashioned way, passing notes under doors like they were a pair of lovestruck teenagers in class. It wasn’t the level of communication that he would have liked, but it was a start. He carried her note back into his room, trying to think of all the possible ways he could say ‘everything hurts’ without making it sound like she actually hurt him.

 

When it was morning, James was awake early as usual. Before he even went to get breakfast he had been to Teresa’s door and slid his response back under it. Teresa woke up several hours later. She was slow to rise and then saw James’ note, now she _had_ to get out of bed.

> _“I’ll be fine, nothing a good drink couldn’t fix”_

She allowed herself to let a small smile grace her features at his attempt to make her laugh, even in writing. 

 

For the rest of the next two days, whenever James was home, he went to the end of the hallway to see if she had written him anything back. And each time he went, there was nothing. His heart broke a little each time, but he never stopped going.

The morning after the end of Teresa’s 4 day hideaway, James, Pote and Kelly Anne were sitting in the kitchen. James was perched on a stool at the breakfast bar, Pote at the hob on the kitchen island and Kelly Anne at the other end of the island. Pote had been making pancakes and Kelly Anne was heating up some shop-bought waffles in the microwave. Pote was a good cook but too lazy to make waffles from scratch. It felt like a normal morning to them. The radio in the background and idle chatter about nothing in particular were the sounds that Teresa heard as she snook into the kitchen.She stood a couple of feet in from the doorway, her eyes locked on James who hadn’t noticed that she was there yet.

He looked up and around after Pote and Kelly Anne had silenced themselves. That was when he saw her, for the first time in over four days. She looked clean, fresh faced. Her hair still wet from the shower she had taken before coming downstairs. Pote gave a nod to Kelly Anne, signalling for them to take their plates and leave, and they did. Leaving Teresa alone with him. James sniffed and looked down from her eyes to the marble of the breakfast counter, planning what his best move would be. 

He slides down from the high stool and picks up another plate from out of the cupboard. Moving over to the stack of pancakes Pote had left by the hob, he used a fish slice to lift some from the pile onto the clean plate. Teresa watched every move that he made with weak eyes.

He was in a tank top and loose-fitting jeans, and she could see some of the cuts that she’d inflicted on his back and shoulders, a fairly large cut peeking out from the bottom of his hairline. Her eyes felt heavy and she curled her bottom lip under her teeth once she saw some of the consequences of what she did to him. James then turned to face her, approaching her gradually and keeping his eyes on the plate of warm pancakes he’d just created. With one hand on either side of the plate, he was standing in front of her, offering it to her. A sort of ‘peace offering’.

Teresa put one hand on the bottom of the plate and then covered one of his with her other hand. 

"I am so sorry, James" 

Teresa spoke to him so delicately, an honest, sincere apology. He looked up to meet her eyes but she was already beholding his, James let the corner of his mouth turn up into a small smile.

 

For the next few minutes they sat together at the breakfast counter. Not a word was said but the silence was comfortable, like they’d been doing this their entire lives.

Pote and Kelly Anne walked back in to see them sitting together, assuming that things were better between them somehow. All four of them ended up finishing off the rest of the breakfast in the kitchen, and it was Teresa who started the conversation, following off from something that was said on the radio. It was nice having everyone back together, joking and smiling again. James could have sworn that he saw Teresa snort when she laughed at one of Pote’s one-liners, and it honestly made his heart melt in his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So after all the angst and brutality of chapter one, I thought this was much needed.  
> Thanks for reading! x


	3. To Be Near You For A While

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "He wasn’t lying, they did indeed need to refuel, but that wasn’t the only reason James wanted to pull over. Somewhere between leaving the bloodbath deal and where they’d pulled over, he’d noticed that Teresa was now just wearing jeans and a basic tank top, it was still fairly warm when they first left Camila’s. But now it was considerably cooler out and Teresa was definitely cold."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of arguments with this chapter :')

Teresa doesn’t own many clothes, but at least there’s more than she used to when she was a drug mule for Camila. Back then she just wore the jeans, tank and flannel that she ran from Epifanio wearing, and then whatever was spare lying around the warehouse, and then whatever James has secretly bought for her once she started to do more work for Camila. Once she started working _with_ Camila, she was able to go and buy her own clothes, but what was the point if she knew that she was going to be on the run again? Her and James were the same in that way, just living with the bare minimum that she could afford to live with, because the chances were that they would have to move fast in the future. Now that she was living in Phoenix, in James’ house with her own bedroom and her own dressing room, she’d decided to buy a few more items. What’s the point in having the cash if she wasn’t going to spend some of it?

 

She’s ferrying between her dry laundry which she’d set down on her bed, and the closet in her dressing room, putting things into their places after their wash. She’d worn more in the last few days than she thought she had. Her closet and drawer space was large, but she kept things tidy in only a couple of areas. She also kept two identical to-go bags just in case, one in the trunk of their SUV and the other in a closet in the downstairs hallway. This was of course James’ idea. He kept a similar set of bags in the same place as hers, “just in case”.

As she was grabbing a hanger from the closet rail, she noticed that an item from the furthest end of the rail had fallen to the bottom of the wardrobe. It was dark and she couldn’t quite recognise what it was. She hung up her top and then opened the other wardrobe door. She immediately saw it to be an item which was indeed familiar to her, not a stranger at all.

 

They were driving back from a somewhat unsuccessful deal one night whilst Teresa was still under Camila’s thumb, and James was still the man trying to protect Teresa and do his job properly, without Camila finding out about his feelings. It was about 1:30am and they had only been driving for 10 minutes. Teresa was tired. James was tired. Both a little cut up from this deal-gone-wrong.

Teresa was a little too close to the man she was fighting off when James shot through him. She was stunned by his confidence in his shooting abilities from so far away, he could have easily killed her instead of this guy, but he didn’t. Her jacket had gotten a large blood spatter down the back, it was dripping. So she just took it off there and then and threw it into the only trash can she could see as they ran out of this abandoned building towards their cars.

With Charger, Tanto and Pote following in the SUV behind them, James radioed to their car:

     “hey, I need to refuel so I’m gonna pull over on the left, if you guys are fine then carry on and get back to the house, we’ll see you there”.

He wasn’t lying, they did indeed need to refuel, but that wasn’t the only reason James wanted to pull over. Somewhere between leaving the bloodbath deal and where they’d pulled over, he’d noticed that Teresa was now just wearing jeans and a basic tank top, it was still fairly warm when they first left Camila’s. But now it was considerably cooler out and Teresa was definitely cold.

Before he got out of the truck James took off his beloved leather jacket and then his black zip-up hoodie from underneath, attempting to hand it to her. She looked up to him and he gave her a reassuring nod - “it’s okay, you’re cold.” His voice was so sincere.She looked to him with tired eyes, and in her weary voice replied with a simple “thank you” as she took the hoodie from his hand. She waited until he had gotten out to refuel before she wrapped it around herself, she could smell him on it and still feel his warmth. She gave a small smile to herself as she watched him walk away from the car to pay for the fuel.

When he got back to the car, she was fully immersed in his large hoodie. Her head leaned back resting on the headrest, watching out of the window at the cars passing on the road. She was so tired. He looked over to her with soft tired eyes, like she was a flame from a crackling fire on a cold winters night, warm and cozy but dangerous at the same time. He managed to let out a silent sigh before bringing his attention to the steering wheel to drive them both back to Camila’s.

Half an hour later and they were ‘home’. Teresa had almost fallen asleep in the passenger side and James was also beginning to tire out. He jumped out of the car and walked around to Teresa’s side to open her door for her. This was a silent understanding that they’d developed, he opens her door, carries her bags, reassures her when she’s scared but doesn’t want to admit it with a simple “it’s alright”. Teresa slid out from her side, accepting James' stretched out hand to help her. Once she was out, James shut the car door behind her and she followed him into the house. 

They walked directly upstairs to the hallway in which both of their rooms were attached, James walking in front of her, “just in case”. As she was walking behind him she unzipped his hoodie, and as she got to her doorway she let out a quiet “James...”. Before she’d even finished saying his name, he’d already slowed and turned to her, several feet further down the hall from her and half lit beautifully from above. She holds his hoodie in her hand and gestures it out towards him. He sighs and lets a small, tired smile grace his face. With a low voice he says “keep it...to keep you warm”. He nods softly to her and turns to continue down to his room around the corner. Her mouth trembles a little as she watches him walk away from her.

Nobody had ever given her the literal clothes off of their back before, Guero had _never_ given her his clothes to keep her warm. But Guero had been ‘dead’ for over a year now... and she had James to look out for her.

All she has, all she needs... is right here.

 

Now she was standing with this old familiar item in her hands. She’d kept it all this time... after their fall out at the train tracks, after her escape to Malta, after she thought that she would never see him again. Was it acceptable for her to keep it after what she said and did to him last week? Surely he’d want it back now? Or had he forgotten about it?

Things had been better between them the last few days, they were getting back to a form of normal but there was still some tension in the air between them. He’d silently forgiven her for what she did, he could never be angry with her for long. But she hadn’t forgotten, still feeling full of guilt.

She walks, hoodie in hand, over to his room, letting out a deep, nervous breath before she knocks on his door.

“It’s open” - he responds, loud enough to be heard from where she was standing.

Teresa, in her pyjama shorts and vest, hesitantly lets herself in to his room. He’s just in sweatpants with his hair messed up (and my oh my does he look _gorgeous_ as always). He looks up from his phone to see her standing anxiously in his doorway. He doesn’t know what to say so he waits for her. She lets out a slow sigh and looks down to the hoodie in her hands.

“This is yours, you let me borrow it a long time ago. I- I thought that you might want it back now”. The way she says this makes him feel a little hollow, like he was being given his things back after a bad break-up. Especially since she was keeping her distance from him.

“I remember... it’s okay, you can keep it” he says, hoping to elicit some sort of thank you from her. Instead, she moves over and places it on top of the chest of drawers that stand across from where he’s sitting on the edge of his bed. She’s still not focussing on him at all, but he can’t take his eyes off of her. His face watching her hand as she rests in on the drawers. She’s not saying a word as she turns her back on him to walk out of the door. James feels like he _has_ to say something, but his words fail him somewhat.

“Teresa-“ he says desperately as he begins to rise to his feet. She almost slows to a complete stop as his next words are interrupted by his phone ringing in his hand. A small part of him is relieved, since he didn't know what he was going to say next anyway. She's half looking over her shoulder towards his direction.

He looks up and down from his phone to her and back, not knowing which he should choose. But she makes the decision for him.She wasn’t angry or upset, she doesn’t quite know what she was feeling. She walks forward out of his room and pulls his door shut behind her. His phone is still ringing in his hands and he doesn’t know what to do. 

And now he’s standing, alone, his heart beating out of his chest, breathing shallow, he feels the start of an attack coming on. His eyes starting to blur around the edges.

Is he losing her again? 

 

Teresa stood outside of his room with her back to the door. She lets out a shaky breath and purses her lips, before sliding down to the floor. Was it a mistake to walk away? Should she have stayed with him?

Her next few minutes are spent sitting at the foot of his door. Her head is in her hands and her knees tucked up to her chest. She’d zoned out and not realised that James had been silent in his room, he must have finished his call.

All of a sudden she’s falling back and rolling to land in between James’ feet. He’s looking down at her with a raised eyebrow and a cocked head, and she... well she's looking up at him from quite and unfortunate angle, and all she can do is crack a smile and a small laugh. 

Her chuckle sounds like heaven to his ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to all who are sticking with me and this story xxxx  
> Only 2 more chapters left! and things are going to get slightly insane :O


	4. Hit The Ground (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "They needed to have a proper talk and James was determined to make it happen."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hehe thanks for the love for this story :) This chapter is kinda short but the next one is quite long so, balance ya know :)
> 
> These final 2 chapters are inspired by the song "Hit The Ground" by Lizz Wright, have a listen and enjoy the chapter (hopefully) :)

Their relationship was starting to feel like a game of Tug of War. Every time James thought she was opening back up to him again, she’d get spooked and retreat back into herself. James had nearly had enough of it, and had asked Kelly Anne to make up some excuse to Teresa, telling her that she needed to come to the winery. They needed to have a proper talk and James was determined to make it happen.

 

Teresa’s phone buzzed on the sofa, since the coffee table that she made James break hadn’t been replaced yet. She looks down and sees a text from Kelly Anne:

“Hey hun, there’s a problem with some of the paperwork for next week’s wedding. Its got your signature on it so I need you to sign the updated version. Also, the tire on the Merc’ is flat :\”

Teresa sighed at the text, it was early in the afternoon and Teresa had initially planned on taking the day off from work. Kelly Anne was borrowing Teresa's car whilst the one she was given to use was being serviced. Now the only way for her to get to the winery would be in James’ car… and nobody is allowed to drive that apart from James.

Teresa searched the house for him and conveniently found him out near the garage, on his third cigarette in the last 5 minutes. He’d picked up smoking again since the incident a  three weeks ago to help relieve some of the anxiety he’s been feeling lately.

“Hey” she says as she approaches him from the side. He’s stood with his back to the brick wall with one foot pressed flat against it. He automatically assumes somethings wrong because _she’s_ the one approaching _him_.

“You alright?” he asks tentatively, knowing full well that nothing is _actually_ wrong.

“I need you to drive me to the winery. I have to sign something and you need to change a tire on Kelly’s car” she says with a sort of impatient tone. She was a little tired of work recently and just wanted to be at the house, in the comfort of her own room and bed. He nods at her and stomps out his cigarette on the ground before gesturing her towards his car.

The drive to the winery is around 10 minutes. That’s 10 minutes of time for James to get her to talk to him. They’re driving in silence and it’s beginning to make James uncomfortable. He puts on a brave face and makes the first move:

“Can we talk?”

“About what?” She replies immediately.

He lets out a quiet breath that he didn't realise he'd been holding in, “everything thats happened since Mexico?”.

Teresa says nothing and just stares out of her window. He looks over to her to see if she was even listening to him or not. When he realises she’s not going to say anything, he slams on the breaks, jolting her forwards, and pulls over by the side of the road.

“Okay, I’ll talk and you listen, because this, _us_ , not talking? It's not fair and frankly it hurts. It hurts me more than what happened that night.” He pauses for a moment and she swings her head down to look into her lap. He recognises that his words sounded more harsh than he meant for them to, so he relaxes his next words.

“You were grieving and I understand that, thats why I’m not angry at you, I’m not angry at what you did. So what I’ve got a few more scars now? That’s okay, I can live with that. But you need to move on-”

“Don’t tell me what I need to do” she cuts him off, turning her head to look him in the eye. “I slept with you, and then Guero died the next day” she says defensively.

“So you regret sleep-” “No!” she responds swiftly before he can even finish his question, shaking her head at the thought.“No” she repeats more gently, as she reaches to cover his hand resting on his thigh with hers. He sighs again, breathing out deeply. His whole tone shifts from confrontational to the typical James softness:

“Teresa, if we can’t talk to each other, then none of this is going to work. Okay? None of it. Please, let me in.” His words echoing in her mind. Almost a repeat of their conversation in Malta. Teresa thinks for a second about how she can make this right between them. “It wasn’t personal” she says, her voice mimicking his soft tone. “If it were Pote or anybody else standing in front of me at _that_ moment, then I think I would have done the same thing to them. It happened to be you and I am so sorry… I stayed in my room because I didn’t think you’d want to see me again. I _never_ meant to hurt you.”

“I know” he whispers as he squeezes her hand. She could never hurt him, no matter what, he'd always come back to her. This thought had been in his head for a long time and it scared him to his core. He'd never felt this way, so deeply for anybody ever before. He'd never had much love before Teresa.

“We’re gonna get through this, _together_ ” he guarantees this to her. Teresa nods subtly to agree with him.

“Together” she says softly as she reaches to place her hand that was holding his onto his cheek, the most tender of touches. His hand follows hers up to hold onto her wrist, gently stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. And just like that, he felt whole again. It didn’t take much for everything to be alright, just a few honest words between them, no interruptions or agendas, just an open heart to heart conversation.

They both simultaneously lean themselves forward to rest their foreheads together. This felt more intimate and close than anything that they did the night before Teresa was taken to Mexico. Completely unaware of anything around them, its like the world has stopped. Teresa goes to bring her lips up to his when

 

 

 

 

 

          crash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooooooo whats going to happen next?!?! :O
> 
> you'll find out in 24hrs :)


	5. Hit The Ground (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It all happened so fast.
> 
> Everything was going well.
> 
> And then… it wasn’t."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might want to start listening to "Hit The Ground" By Lizz Wright :) just stick it on a loop  
> This is the final chapter!  
> Enjoy xxxx

It all happened so fast.

Everything was going well.

And then… it _wasn’t_.

 

He’s on the floor. Barely moving. But she’s 20ft away and they’re still under heavy fire. She tries to shoot accurately but she can’t stop worrying for him. Out of the corner of her eye she sees him there. On the ground. And her heart shatters.

     How did they get here? …

 

There’s a ringing in her ear. She blinks her eyes open slowly, they sting as they readjust to the light of the bright sky. James is flung over the steering wheel, a fair amount of blood dripping from his now broken nose. She's gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut from her pain. It feels like the world has slowed to a halt. Teresa is numb in her side, having been thrown forward into the dash of the SUV. “James…” she fumbles back up from the footwell and into the passenger seat, moving her hands towards him when her door is suddenly being pulled open - “OUT! GET OUT!” a man covered from head to toe in tattoos and black clothing with a substantially large weapon in his hand shouts to her. He keeps on repeating his same words. She sees him but she can't comprehend anything, she's in shock. A small trace of blood dripping down from above her eyebrow and into her eye.

Her hands are shaking over James as she looks back to him, before being pulled out of the car by her hair, the tattood man gripping onto her and slinging her onto the ground outside of the car. She yelps out in pain as she lands on the tarmac. Her side doesn't feel broken as she holds it, but it's sure going to be bruised for weeks... if she makes it out of this alive.

James grumbles a small “Teresa” as she’s being pulled away from him. Another man is opening James’ door, and as James begins to awaken and sit up, the other man smacks him in the back of the head with the butt of his gun. Knocking James back out cold. Teresa yells out his name but he can't hear her. She’s grappling with the floor as she tries to climb back into the car. But the man wasn’t going to let her do that.

He raises his gun to the back of her head and presses it into her hair - “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” he warns her. Teresa has no option, no weapon. James’ pistol is in the side of his door, and he clearly wasn’t going to be reaching for it any time soon.

 

When James and Teresa hadn’t turned up to the winery, Kelly Anne assumed that they’d talked like James was planning to, and that she no longer needed to pretend to be working. She’d gotten in the Mercedes to drive home to the house, after all, there was nothing wrong with the tires.As she gets halfway to the house, along a stretch of road which is usually nearly empty, she see’s something going on ahead of her. As she gets closer she recognises the car, and then the woman on the floor with the gun to her head, and then as she drives parallel to the car, she recognises the unconscious man in the driver’s seat. She swears out loud to herself and grabs her phone. She immediately calls Pote and screams to him about what she’s just seen. What can she do? She can’t turn around and go to help them because she’d probably get killed. In a panic, she drives quicker and quicker along the road.

Pote grabs Charger and they start to run out of the house towards the road which Kelly Anne is driving on. Pote’s hysteria is making him run faster than he’s ever ran before. He wasn’t going to let either of them die, not like this. They eventually meet Kelly Anne after she sped up the car to a stupid speed to get to them. She jumps out of the car and throws Pote the keys, “Call for reinforcements, the guns from the winery!” he shouts to her and she immediately pulls out her phone as she starts to run back to the house. Pote and Charger get in and quick turn the car back around, speeding down the road to help Teresa and James. Pote’s mind is racing at the possibilities of what could be happening to them right now.

 

In the mean time, another large dark vehicle had pulled up to where they were, Teresa kneeling on the hot ground. Waiting to be shot. James is still out cold.

Three armed men get out from the second car. A rebel group who were just starting to get a foothold under Pecas… before James killed him in a parking complex.Now there’s five men, all armed, standing in a line in front of their second SUV which is halted side on in the middle of the road. The first SUV is still rammed into the back of James’ car.

“If you’re going to kill us, then you should just do it” Teresa spits out to them. The main guy in the middle smirks at her. He was the one who had pulled her from the car, and then when backup arrived; pulled her into the middle of the road. Teresa could tell that these guys were amateurs, none of them had checked James’ car for any weapons, so Teresa knew that his pistol was _still_ in the side of his door. Though, they _were_ outnumbered and outgunned, so it wasn’t going to make much of a difference. 

“You killed Pecas… that was stupid of you. Because now, you’re all on your own. And theres nobody here to help you.” The ringleader raises his gun up and aims it at her.

Teresa is surprisingly calm. She smirks to the ringleader, raising an eyebrow at him.

"I'm never on my own."

Like magic, as soon as she says these words, Teresa’s two men from the winery arrive all guns blazing and crash into the side of the rebel’s SUV, pushing it forward into the line of men, knocking them to the ground. All of the men are startled and scatter, there are guns firing in every direction. James has pulled his gun from the door and started firing through the broken windscreen of his car. Over the years he’d gotten good at pretending to be unconscious and was just buying his time, keeping watch on everything out of the corner of his eye. Keeping a watch on her.

Teresa managed to escape a few bullets as she ran around to the rear of the first truck that crashed into them. Pote and Charger had arrived too and rushed to a halt in the middle of the road. They had their car doors open and were firing through the gaps between the car and the door.

“TERESA!” Pote shouts to her.

“I’m okay!” she shouts back to him over the noise of the firefight.

Both of her men from the winery were shot and bleeding out on the ground. And now there was just three of the rebels shooting from behind their second SUV, and three of Teresa’s men. Two of which had a good position behind a heavily built Mercedes, which Teresa had also now scrambled her way to the back of, pulling a pistol from the back of Pote’s waistband along the way.

But James was stuck in the crossfire. The doors to his car open and all of the windows broken. Teresa scans to see if he’s okay. He tries to run from his position over to join them. But he doesn’t make it that far. He closes his eyes and the world fades to black.

 

Teresa’s focussed on him. She’s screaming his name over and over.

He’s not moving, bleeding red into the dirt.

 

For a moment, Teresa hears nothing, she sees nothing else but him. Her jaw dropped open and trembling in shock.

“GO, GET TO HIM!” - Pote shouts to her - “WE GOT THIS! GO!”

Teresa fires off a couple more rounds whilst running to James. He’s almost fully out in the open, exposed to the fire fight. Pote moves forward to cover her as she runs and stumbles to the ground behind James. Now she’s nearly exposed too. She would die for him, but not like this, not now, not if she can save him.

She plants her feet behind him and uses all of her strength to drag him behind the shelter of the first rebel vehicle. She only had to drag him a yard, but he was almost dead weight. Once she got him moved she sat up on the ground, all the while saying his name

“ James, no.. James... James…” over and over again. And with each time getting more desperate to have some sort of coherent response from him. 

She’s pulled him up between her legs so his head rests on her stomach. She'd brought him back around but he’s gagging for air with uncontrollable breathing. There’s two 9mm round piercings a couple of inches below his sternum, straight into the center of his abdomen. Teresa’s trying not to cry all over him, but it’s impossible. She needs to be strong for him and tell him he’s going to be okay. But she can’t. Her hands are trembling and her whole body is shaking. _His_ body is shaking.

She tears off her zip up hoodie and tries to tie it around him, around his wounds, but she can't lift him up high enough to wrap it around.

He’s losing too much blood.

She doesn’t care how stained she’s getting. He cannot die today.

 

_All bleeding eventually stops_.

 

She leaves one hand holding on to the holes in his abdomen, pressing down to try and stem the bleed.

 

_All bleeding eventually stops_.

 

Her other hand is bloody, stroking the side of his face, tears falling from her face onto his. She’s still repeating his name over and over as he looks up to her, the hope she usually sees in his eyes is almost gone.

 

_All bleeding eventually stops_.

 

Pote and Charger have killed off the last of the rebels, and Charger was making his way around to each of them just to be sure. Pote comes running over to find the pair on the floor. He lowers to see how badly James is hurt, not letting Teresa know how bad it actually is, he doesn’t need to tell her what she can clearly see in front of her, and he knows not to lie to her that 'it's all going to be alright'. He wasn't one for giving her false hope.   

 

_All bleeding eventually stops_.

 

Suddenly, Teresa’s having a flashback to how they’d been in this situation before. When Brenda had been killed and she was cradling her cold body in her arms, Pote standing behind her in the doorway. And then to how Guero lay across her lap as he died in the car on the way back from Mexico just a couple of weeks ago.

“Teresa” Pote says, urgency in his voice.

She’s crying, sobbing, trying to hold onto James, trying to keep him alive.

“He’s still breathing but not for long Teresita, we need to get him up, we need to go!”

She knows he’s right but getting to her feet is harder than it should be. Charger had joined them and him and Pote had lifted James into their arms and were already carrying him into the backseat of the bullet pierced Mercedes.

 

_All bleeding eventually stops_.

 

Teresa finds her feet and wipes her brow with her forearm, leaving a smear of blood on her forehead. But her whole body is shaking and her feet are frozen in the ground.

 

“All bleeding eventually stops. The body either heals itself up... or the person dies.”

She heard this from James a few months ago when he cut himself jumping through a giant glass window to save her. He gained a particularly nasty cut which she was worried about, but he wasn’t. She was shocked by his bluntness when he came out with this phrase. But it’s true, and it’s all that she kept thinking of.

 

Pote disappeared half an hour ago to find food. Charger had gone back to the house. They’d been at the hospital on Taza’s reservation for nearly 24 hours. When they arrived James went straight into theatre. They worked on him for 3 hours before anybody came out to update them. Then he remained in there for another 2 hours.

Teresa refused to let a doctor check her over before he'd come out and was alive, but Pote had noticed shrapnel in her side and almost forced her onto a hospital bed. And now she was sitting next to James. Waiting for a sign. Anything to suggest that he could hear her talking to him. There was nothing.

 

_All bleeding eventually stops_.

 

After two days she was still by his side. No more tears left to cry, eyes dry to the bone.Pote had been driving back and forth to the hospital, with clean clothes and good food and her laptop. Though she couldn’t bring herself to check up on any of their business matters right now.

In the last bag of clothes that Pote brought for her, she noticed the familiar item she thought she wouldn’t see again.

James’ black zip-up hoodie.

She pulled it out from the bag and wrapped herself in it, putting the first smile on her face in days. It smelt of him, his room, his skin. Had he secretly put it back into her room? She didn’t know, but she was glad to have the familiar warmth and smell of him around her again.

 

She was about to drift off to sleep when a faint pressure was applied to her hand.

 

“I hope its keeping you warm.” James says with a quiet hoarse voice. Teresa was so overwhelmed, gasping with joy as she began to cry. For nearly three days she’d been in the exact same spot, holding his hand the entire time.

Between her sobbing and smiling, he’d managed to open his eyes. He slowly turned his head towards her and squeezed her hand even further. 

He’s not in physical pain but the emotional pain of seeing her like this hurts him. He can’t bring himself to speak a full sentence but let’s out a simple, soft

“Teresa”.

With salty tears running down both of their cheeks, she reaches out her other hand and places it on the side of his face, just like she did when he was lying on the ground. Almost dead. 

“Ssshhhh it’s okay, it’s alright now. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.” She reassures him. But he’s overwhelmed too, not holding back, he squeezes his eyes shut and grits his teeth together as he fights his tears. The last time he was awake he was seconds from death, and now Teresa is the first thing he sees when he's alive again.

All she can do is move closer to him and lean down to press her lips and then her forehead to the side of his cheek. She can’t hold him like she wants to because it’ll hurt him, but she can be there like he’s been for her the last three years.

In these days in the hospital, Teresa realised that she herself would have died inside if she’d lost him.

He looks up to her, dewy eyes with tear stains forming along his skin. She lovingly brushes back the precious strand of hair that’s fallen onto his face. Teresa lets him angle up his chin, meeting him halfway, to give her a long overdue kiss, after which she reassures him

“I’m not going anywhere” she whispers, “you’re going to make it”.

To which he replies “no, _we’re_ going to make it.”

 

* * *

The end :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta daaaaaa :D  
> Thanks for sticking with me and this story, I appreciate it! :) xx


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